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ELECTION OF SENATORS BY THE PEOPLE. 



RURAL FREE DELIVERY. 



SPEECHES 



OF 



hon. john a. Mcdowell, 

OF OHIO, 

IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



APRIL 12 AND 24, 1900. 



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WASHINGTON, 
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Election of Senators by the People. 



SPEECH 

OF 

hon. john a. Mcdowell, 

OF OHIO, 

In the House of Representatives, 

Thursday, April 12> 1900, 

The House having under consideration House joint resolution No. 28, pro- 
posing an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of Sena- 
tors of the United States- 
Mr. Mcdowell said: 

Mr. Speaker: The American people have a high regard for the 
Constitution of their country. They have abiding respect for 
and great confidence in the wisdom of the fathers who framed 
the greatest political instrument of all ages. How natural that an 
instrument which has served so well for more than a century the 
purposes of the best Republic of all ages should be regarded as 
sacred by the people. The almost universal veneration in which 
the Constitution is held by the people insures to a very great ex- 
tent the perpetuity of the Republic. 

The people do not suggest any change in the Constitution unless 
it be in the interest of better and purer government. The framers 
of the Constitution foresaw the probable necessity for amendments 
and made provision in the Constitution itself for amendments de- 
sired. Within ten years after the ratification of the Constitution 
eleven amendments were made to it. 

In the Presidential election of 1800 the urgent necessity was 
shown for a change in the mode of electing President and Vice- 
President. In 1804 the twelfth amendment was ratified. From 
1804 to 1865 it is well to note that not a single amendment to the 
Constitution was adopted. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- 
teenth amendments were the outcome of the civil war. 

The proposition now under consideration is not a new one. 
The proposition to elect Senators by direct vote of the people was 
urged at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. The de- 
bates on the Federal Constitution in the Constitutional Conven- 
tion do not show that any serious or valid objections were made 
against the right or the wisdom of the people to elect United States 
Senators. Mr. Madison and Mr. Mason, of Virginia, and Mr. 
Wilson, of Pennsylvania, all prominent men of the convention, 
advocated the election of Senators by a direct vote. They desired 
that the Republic should be created upon a solid and durable 
foundation. Mr. Madison expressed his idea in these words: 

The great fabric to be raised would be more stable and durable if it should 
rest on the solid foundation of the people themselves than if it should stand 
merely on the pillars of the legislatures. 

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Mr. Wilson said: 

If we are to establish a national government, that government ought to 
flow from the people at large. If one branch of it should be chosen by the 
legislatures and the other by the people, the two branches will rest on differ- 
ent grounds and dissension will naturally arise between them. I wish the 
Senators to be elected by the people, as well as the other branch. 

The people of this country have for years been asking Congress 
to submit an amendment to the Constitution to allow them to 
elect Senators by a direct vote. The legislatures of the great 
States of Ohio. Pennsylvania, California, Indiana, Illinois. Iowa, 
Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Nebraska, 
and others, thirty-four in all, have expressed the sentiments of the 
people of these States by memorials and resolutions, praying Con- 
gress to pass a joint resolution providing for the amendment de- 
sired. This House has at different times passed a measure similar 
to the one proposed by the minority report. Such a measure 
passed this House in the Fifty-second Congress. Joint resolution 
No. 20, on the same subject, passed the Fifty-third Congress by a 
vote of 141 yeas and 50 nays. A like measure passed the Fifty- 
fifth Congress by a vote of 185 yeas and 11 nays. Notwithstand- 
ing that the House, on these different occasions, has acted in ac- 
cord with the will of the people, the Senate has ignored the 
popular sentiment of the country. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I believe that very recent experiences in the 
election of United States Senators — Senatorial deadlocks, scandals, 
and charges of bribery — should convince the members in the other 
branch of the American Congress that something should be done 
at once to avoid the repetition of these disgraceful experiences. 
At the beginning of this session of Congress there were four vacan- 
cies in the Senate, caused by deadlocks in the State legislatures. 
Investigations were instituted as to the right of two Senators elect 
to hold their seats. These investigations were brought about by 
charges of irregularities and bribery. 

Much valuable time of the legislatures is unprofitably used in 
fruitless attempts to elect Senators. It demoralizes the legisla- 
ture, corrupts legislators, prevents necessary legislation, causes 
the people to have a less regard for our political systems and for 
public officials. What stronger evidence do we need for the neces- 
sity of a change in the mode of electing Senators than we have 
had in the last fifteen months in the various deadlocks and in the 
election of a Senator in Montana? One State after another is be- 
ing disgraced in consequence of the prevailing method of electing 
Senators. Even my own State, the great State of Ohio, has felt 
the blighting influences of this pernicious method. I hesitate 
here to say how the good people of that State have been mortified 
over certain Senatorial elections. 

Under the present mode time is not only wasted in the State 
legislatures, but time is wasted in the United States Senate in the 
investigations of elections and the validity of the appointments of 
Senators. In this session of Congress matters of general legisla- 
tion have been set aside and postponed in the Senate in conse- 
quence of these investigations referred to. What the Senate may 
do is problematical. What the people want it to do is certain. 

Give the people the privilege to elect Senators by a direct vote 
and the evils incident to the present method will be very largely, 
if not entirely, remedied. Legislatures will be free to enact laws 
for the people. State capitals will not continue to be the place 
where Senatorial seats are sold. [Applause.] 

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Let the people elect the Senators, and there will be decidedly 
fewer investigations in the Senate. More time can be had for 
careful legislation. Fewer men will find seats in the Senate whose 
principal qualification under the present method is a long purse. 
The great corporate powers will not be able to place their own 
trusted attorneys and agents in the United States Senate to legis- 
late for their special interests. Think of the number of attorneys 
for the great railroad companies and other gigantic combinations 
of wealth that have lately found their way into the United States 
Senate. Is it any wonder that the people are demanding the right 
to elect Senators by popular vote? 

By the present method of electing corrupting influences are 
seen at work in the county primary elections. Through influ- 
ences of political rings and machines persons are selected as can- 
didates for the legislature on condition that they pledge them- 
selves, if elected, to support a certain man for Senator. This is 
the chief purpose and motive of their candidacy. They frequently 
do not make known their intentions in this direction. The} T feel 
no burden of responsibility to represent their people in the matter. 
How can such persons be true representatives of the people on any 
matters? Submit the election of Senators to the people, and polit- 
ical bosses and rings will receive a severe blow. [Applause.] 

Mr. Speaker, several of the Southern States have made com- 
mendable improvement on the mode of electing Senators. Their 
candidates for Senators go before the people at their primary elec- 
tions. The candidate receiving a plurality of votes is the choice 
of his party. This is practically choosing Senators by a direct 
vote, although the legislatures ratify the choice of the people, or 
make the election in accordance with the requirements of the pre- 
vailing method. In these States there is a universal demand for 
the right of the people to elect. The method they now pursue does 
not result in deadlocks or produce great scandals. 

Let Senators be elected by popular vote and there will always 
be a choice. We shall not have great States w r ith half represen- 
tation in the Senate, as we have to-day. State legislatures will 
not be so violently disturbed by bitter political contests. The 
Senate itself will be elevated in the estimation of the people; the 
Senators being chosen by the people, will have their confidence 
in a larger degree than they now have. 

I shall support the proposition tha: comes from the minority of 
the committee. We want a uniformity in the method of electing 
Senators. The proposition recommended by the majority of the 
committee allows the people to elect whether they will choose 
Senators by the present method — through the legislatures — or by 
direct vote of the people. The proposition of the minority of the 
committee is to elect by direct vote. I believe that the States 
that have expressed a desire for a change of the method of elect- 
ing Senators are all in favor of electing by a direct vote of the 
people. 

I count it a happy privilege to cast my vote for the measure 
recommended by the minority of the commttee. For one, I am 
willing to trust the people, it can not be miintained that legis- 
latures select better men than would be elected by the people. 
He who is afraid to trust the people should not be trusted by 
them. Heretofore the Senate has stood in the way of this legis- 
lation. It may for a time refuse to adopt the pending .-joint reso- 
lution, but I believe it will be forced to yield to the pressure of 
public opinion in the end. [Applause.] 

43.;8 



Rural Free Delivery, 



SPEECH 

OF 

hon. John a. Mcdowell, 

OF OHIO, 

In the House of Eepresentatives, 

Tuesday, April 24, 1900. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, 
and having under consideration the bill (H. R. 103U1) making appropriations 
for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1901— 

Mr. MCDOWELL said: 

Mr. Chairman: I am opposed to the amendment striking out 
the word "experimental." I believe the rural free-delivery serv- 
ice is still in the experimental stage, and the Department is pro- 
ceeding carefully and judiciously with the idea of giving it a fair 
trial. Furthermore, if this service is not to be regarded as ex- 
perimental, the employees in the service would lawfully come 
under civil-service rules, and I doubt whether this House, after 
careful consideration, is ready to place rural free delivery under 
civil service. 

In replying to some remarks made by the gentleman from Geor- 
gia [Mr. Maddox], it is true that Ohio had, on December 1, 1899, 
83 routes established. That is not too much for the great State 
of Ohio. We never get any more than we want, and we are al- 
ways going to get all that we can. [Laughter.] 

Now, 1 do not believe it is true that it has taken begging, as 
some gentlemen have said, to get these routes established. I have 
had nine routes established in my district, more than have been 
established in the State of Georgia, according to the statement of 
the gentleman [Mr. Maddox] . I did not have to beg for them. 
We presented good petitions, containing more than 100 families, 
oftentimes supplying five or six hundred persons. Some of these 
routes did away with fourth-class post-offices and eliminated car- 
riers, and the showing that is now made on these routes is very 
favorable. It demonstrates that the expense is very little, if any, 
more than the delivery of the mail to some communities by the 
star-route service. 

Referring again to what the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
Maddox 1 said, I do not think members need to feel that they are 
compelled to beg to secure this service. They should advise their 
constituents interested in trying to get rural free delivery to ^et 
up good petitions in thickly settled communities. Then personal 
attention to the matter on the part of the Congressman will secure 
the service. These matters are not secured without the asking. 

Mr. MADDOX. If my friend from Ohio will allow me to inter- 
fere, I never charged that there was any trouble in getting one 
established in the State of Ohio. [Laughter.] 

Mr. McDOWELL. It will be a cold day when Ohio fails to get 

6 4398 



what she so richly deserves. However, I do not think it would be 
difficult to get rural free delivery in Georgia. I believe the dis- 
position of the Department is to be .fair. But there is a good deal 
in the kind of petition that is presented and in the personal atten- 
tion given to the matter by the Congressman. 

Another thing, as suggested by the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. 
Lacey] , perhaps a great many of these petitions that members 
speak of have been filed within the last few months. It is true 
that applications made in Ohio many months ago have been in- 
vestigated only within the last few weeks. I do not know of an 
application that has been filed since last summer that has yet been 
investigated. It takes time, and there is a very small force of 
special agents at work in investigating routes. 

Mr. MADDOX. Well, that ought to be attended to. 

Mr. McDOWELL. That is true, and perhaps with a larger ap- 
propriation we shall have a larger force of special agents. We 
know the appropriation made last year was exhausted when we 
met here in December, and the Department was not able to go on 
investigating routes where applications had been made. There 
are on tile hundreds of applications which the special agents have 
not been able to get around to investigate. I have reasons to be- 
lieve that the postal officials desire to be fair in the management 
of establishing this service. I had a letter not long ago in reply 
to an application in my own district, a letter from the special 
agent, and he said that there were other districts in the State that 
did not have but one or two routes established, and it was neces- 
sary for him to go there and investigate proposed routes and es- 
tablish the service, where found feasible, before he could go to 
districts that already had quite a number of routes in operation. 

1 take it that no one can reasonably object to this method of pro- 
cedure. 

Mr. Chairman, I believe we are to have an appropriation for 
this service this year more than five times as large as that of 
last year. This will enable the Department to have in operation 
probably about five thousand free-delivery routes. It will not 
be found practical or desirable for the present to have the same 
number of routes established in each State, the same number in 
each Congressional district, or the same number in each county. 
The interest of the people in the service (whether they desire it or 
do not desire it) , the density or sparseness of population, and the 
condition of the public roads are determining factors in the ex- 
tension of this service. In public- spirited communities the serv- 
ice, no doubt, will rapidly find its way. 

Rural free delivery and good roads are inseparably connected. 
We must either have good roads as a condition for rural mail serv- 
ice or the coming and continuance of rural free delivery will 
bring good roads. It is difficult to say which of these will be the 
more beneficial to the people. The coming of either should be 
hailed with delight. [Applause.] 

When this Government went into operation under the Consti- 
tution, in 1789, there were but seven post-offices in the United 
States. To-day our postal service stands unequaled by that of 
any other country in revenues, cost, efficiency, or in the apprecia- 
tion of the public. Every decade has been marked with steps of 
advancement. Letter postage has been reduced from 25 cents to 

2 cents. Villages that a few years ago received mail once a week 
now receive mail once or twice a day. But the inauguration of 

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rural free mail service marks the most important step in postal 
progress that this country has seen in the last half century. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Rural free delivery is certain to be a great factor in the devel- 
opment of the rural communities. It will have a most marked 
effect upon the intellectual and material progress of these com- 
munities. Who can estimate the value to the farmer of receiv- 
ing daily papers at his door to give him news of current events 
and the daily market prices of products he has to sell or to 
buy? An accurate knowledge of market prices will often save 
him from being wronged by shrewd and tricky dealers. Give the 
farmer rural free delivery, and the time saved, which would be 
required to go after his mail, will be money in his pocket. He 
can well afford to take more newspapers and periodica' s and 
write more letters. His home will bee me a school for the study 
of important public questions and great events. 

Every community in which rural free delivery is established 
will be considered a more desirable locality in which to reside. 
There will be found better educational and social influences, more 
refinement and culture. Farm property, other things being equal, 
will be more valuable in such communities. In our country 
homes have been reared the brightest, the wisest, and the ablest 
men of the past and the present, and by giving to the rural re- 
gions the increased mail facilities afforded by rural free delivery 
the educational agencies of these homes will be further increased 
and the rural homes will continue to give to the professions, the 
trades, and the various vocations the strongest and best men and 
women. [Applause.] 

I am glad to see members of this House so much disposed in 
favor of legislation to benefit the farming communities. There 
seems to have been a grand awakening on some of the subjects in 
which farmers have a vital interest. For years the agricultural 
population of this country has been asking for rural free delivery. 
Congress has been gradually increasing the mail facilities of the 
cities, giving them from two to nine free deliveries a day and es- 
tablishing branch offices accessible to all. It is only fair and 
equitable that the farming interests should have a fair share of 
the modern facilities of our admirable postal system. 

The farmers bear a very large part of the burden of taxation. 
They pay taxes as cheerfully as any other class of citizens. But 
it is an indisputable fact that farmers have not had equitable con- 
sideration in matters of general legislation. 

It is time that Congress should cease to legislate continually 
and exclusively for other interests, and to ignore the interests of 
farmers, who are the very foundation of our social and commercial 
institutions and the bulwark of our Government. 

It is gratifying that the Post-Office Department is able to make 
so favorable a showing of the successful operation of this service. 
On many routes the service is already self-supporting. In conse- 
quence of the establishment of this service the postal receipts 
have materially increased. We may reasonably expect continued 
favorable showings from the workings of this service. 

Mr. Chairman, I am heartily in favor of rural free delivery. I 
could cheerfully support even a larger appropriation than the bill 
under consideration carries. But I commend the committee in 
their generous response to the earnest and just appeals of the 
farmers of the country. [Applause.] 

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